How is a Christian Supposed to Live?

If you were to ask the average person, even someone who may not claim to be a Christian the question “What does a Christian believe?” their answers would most likely fall somewhere in the line of:

• They believe in God
• They believe in Jesus as the Son of God
• They believe in love and tolerance
• They believe in heaven

And all of those things are accurate.

However, if you were to ask the average person, including many people who do profess to be Christians “How is a Christian supposed to live?” you’d get answers that fall all over the place. Unfortunately, we often don’t do as great of a job living out what we believe and helping others to see how to live it out as we do about saying what we believe.

Again, proclaiming our faith is important. But if all we do is proclaim it and tell everyone what to believe, but we don’t live it and show others how, what good is it really doing us… or them?

In Galatians 5:1 the Apostle Paul makes this statement:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

It’s amazing to think about the fact that Jesus has set us free, and what He’s set us free from. Worry, Doubt, Fear, Anxiety, Anger, and so much more are emotional (and physical, sometimes!) weights that we carry through life because of the things we’ve experienced or had done to us. But Jesus, by His grace, sweeps into our lives when we accept His free gift of salvation and offers us a new way of living…in freedom!

But what we also see here is that Paul warns us ‘do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.’ That means that if we don’t make different choices, our freedom is provided by Jesus but it won’t be experienced by us! If we are told ‘do not be’ that means the decision on if we go back to the emotional and spiritual bondage we had before coming to Christ is based on our decisions and choices, not on anything God does or anyone else does.

Choices like continuing to do things we used to do before we were Christians, going certain places, spending time in certain unhealthy relationships, and putting ourselves in certain environments and situations has the ability to bring back those things that Jesus paid the price to set us free from. Fear, anxiety, worry, anger… all of those things and more will come right back into our hearts and minds, even as a Christian, if we don’t begin to make different decisions going forward. It’s just like going out and playing in the mud as a kid… you can come inside and wash up and change your clothes, but if you go right back outside to the mud you end up in the same situation!

In the same chapter, Galatians 5, Paul says this in verse 13:

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” 

God doesn’t want us to stay as we are, and He gives us His mercy when we have messed up and His grace to help us get going again, but again we see here that the choice resides with us. We have to decide that we are going to think differently, talk differently, act differently, and live differently.

But then Paul takes things a step further and tells us how we can begin to train ourselves and, if you want to think of it this way, distract ourselves from going back to things that are unhealthy. He tells us to focus on loving and serving others.

Think about that for a moment…

I can’t stay angry at someone if I am praying for them, serving them, and focusing on treating them like Jesus has treated me.

I can’t stay worried about a situation if I stop focusing on it and start focusing on serving needs in others lives.

I can’t be anxious about my future if I am instead putting my energy and focus into helping someone else reach their God-given dream or potential.

I heard it said like this recently:

Whatever you feed grows, whatever you starve dies.

So, that brings me back to my opening… I want people to look at my life, your life, and our wonderful organization and see the love of Jesus. Not perfection, because that’s unrealistic. But when they think of me, or think of SAO, I hope they think ‘there is a group of young women who are not just saying “LIVE FOR JESUS” but they are showing me by how they talk, how they treat others, how they live their lives… I want to be more like that.’

Don’t fall for the trick that the enemy will try on you that tells you it’s ok to compromise your convictions or your standards. It only leads you back into bondage, according to Galatians 5. But it also has the potential to confuse others who may be looking at your life, like younger siblings, classmates, co-workers, or even others Sisters who are newer in their relationship with Jesus. God wants better for you, and for them! He wants freedom!

And He already paid for it, so don’t give it up!

Written By: Elizabeth Kroner